Lalu stands by statement on Advani arrest

Railway Minister Lalu Yadav said on Tuesday that he stood by his statement in a television interview that Sharad Yadav and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, ministers in the VP Singh government, had asked him not to arrest BJP leader LK Advani on his rath yatra in Bihar in 1990.

Describing JD(U) president Sharad Yadav as an “opportunist”, the RJD leader said he would write a book some day to bring out the “whole truth” about the episode.

Sharad had termed Lalu a ‘liar’ claiming that it was he himself who had urged him to detain Advani and not let the rath yatra proceed towards Ayodhya in neighbouring UP.